This weekend’s meditation challenge is to dive into our poetry Archives, choose a haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form on the theme of ‘rain’ to share, including the reason for choosing it, and then create a new poem inspired by it.

I chose a haiku I wrote back in March 2017 for a haibun about visiting my daughter a month after my mother’s funeral. We went for a walk on Pewley Downs, which is not far from where she lives. It had been raining and the dogs were eager to get out for a good long walk. We shared memories of my mother and this is what inspired my new poem, which is for my grandson, whom she didn’t get to meet.